A weapon caused a ton of teamkills in Helldivers 2 and left players disappointed. Now it’s finally fun.
What weapon is it about? In Helldivers 2, the RL-77 air-detonation rocket launcher came into play in April 2024. This was a reward for completing a general order. Players had to choose between anti-tank mines and the rocket launcher as part of the command.
However, the air-detonation rocket launcher was not well received by players when it was released and many were disappointed because the launcher’s projectiles led to tons of unintentional team kills. They detonated independently near enemies and fired additional explosive fragments in the area. As a result, the projectiles often went off earlier than planned and wiped out entire Helldiver teams.
The players therefore always had to be careful when using the rocket launcher. Even though the developers tried to fix the problem in several patches, it never really caught on with the game’s meta – although it is actually a good choice for closing bug nests.
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However, with patch 01.002.001 from December 13th, the rocket launcher received a new fire mode. The players were able to test this extensively over the past few days and came to the conclusion: This thing is finally fun!
New fire mode lets you time projectiles better
What has been changed about the rocket launcher? The air-detonation rocket launcher has received an additional fire mode. You can now choose whether to fire with the old anti-aircraft bullets or whether to use new cluster bullets.
The scatter bullets are triggered by a timer, while the anti-aircraft bullets are fired when they approach an enemy.
What does this change in the gameplay? If you use the cluster bombs, you no longer have to pay attention when firing a projectile to whether an enemy might be very close to you and could activate the trigger – and since there is almost always an enemy near you in Helldivers 2, this simplifies this Use of the launcher tremendously.
So now you can target a swarm in the distance at any time, fire, and watch as the rocket launcher’s all-over explosion eliminates a swarm with just one missile.
Reddit user MegaHunts shows what this looks like in practice in a short video:
However, keep in mind that the Air Detonation Rocket Launcher is not as powerful against larger, armored enemies like an Acid Titan.
What do the players say about the change? Reddit user Mega Hunts is definitely enjoying the change with the rocket launcher and enthuses: “Airburst’s new cluster bomb mode is just too much fun.”
Others are also enthusiastic about the change. Killercobra009 says: “I originally thought that this was how the air detonation would work, but I love that they added that.”
So the RL-77 Air Detonation Rocket Launcher has now received an important buff that makes it more useful and easier to use for many players. Maybe in the future it will even manage to rise in our tier list of the best weapons: Helldivers 2: Tier List of the best weapons and grenades for every use